By Kieron Gillen on October 13th, 2008 at 4:00 pm.
The London Games Fringe asked if we wanted to run an event as part of this year’s fringe. We said – hell yeah! To that end, on the night of October 28th we will be running the world’s first RPS Thinkosium downstairs at the Alphabet Bar in Soho, London. You are all welcome. While tickets are free, you have to book them in advance. And since the venue isn’t exactly enormous, you probably better get a move on. You can do so here.
But what is the RPS Thinkosium? Well, glad you asked…
Rock Paper shotgun is the world’s biggest PC gaming blog. Which is a funny to thing find yourself writing, but it seems to be true nevertheless. It is devoted to three . The clever, the stupid and the PC games. Their event as part of the London Games Fringe aims to pull all three together.
The basic set up is Question Time. Kieron Gillen acting as host to a panel of PC Gaming experts, including Mark Morris of Introversion (DARWINIA, DEFCON, MULTIWINIA) and Splash Damage’s Ed Stern (ENEMY TERRITORY: QUAKE WARS). Plus others to be announced when we’re sure they’re actually going to turn up. We gather questions in advance, and then ask them to the panel. They will then talk over the issues as cleverly and funnily as they can. The truth will be located.
Which is the clever – but there’s a twist, and it’s a stupid one. It’s also a drinking game. Whenever certain words are mentioned – which aren’t known in advance, and are only revealed as and when they’re spoken – everyone has to drink. The words will be, perhaps predictably, ones which are fairly likely to turn up in the debate. Like – say – “Piracy”. Everyone will end up getting a bit tipsy, unless you’re drinking soft drinks, and then you’ll get – er – a bit sugar rushy. Which is nearly as good.
There’s also some money behind the bar, so some drinks will be free too. As is the entrance fee, though you do have to book a ticket on this splendid page.
It’s a unique chance to come along and mingle (and mingle drinks) with other lovers of PC games. We demand your attendance. WE DEMAND IT.
As I said, tickets can be booked here. We’ll give updates about others guests when we actually know for sure, but promises to be a highly amusing evening anyway. The doors will open at 7 for canvasing of questions, while the actual questions will start at around 8 or so, continuing as long as it seems funny and/or we have questions. Probably the former.
Hopefully we’ll see some of you there.
[This event is part of The London Games Fextival 2008, so check out their website for a selection of the other, lesser events you can take a look at in the Big Smoke around the same time.]
13/10/2008 at 16:16 Lu-Tze says:
The one week i’m on holiday this year… Oh well.
13/10/2008 at 16:16 Sideath says:
Oh, I am so there.
13/10/2008 at 16:19 Tom Armitage says:
Go on, then.
13/10/2008 at 16:19 James G says:
Aww, in London, and on a Tuesday. Can we have someone recording it please for those of us not able to make the journey into the big smoke? Or, even better, a live streaming.
Please.
13/10/2008 at 16:20 parm says:
Oh, arse. I’m flying to Ireland from Stansted at horrifying-o-clock in the morning the day after that.
13/10/2008 at 16:21 Kismet says:
For us geographically-impaired RPSirs, please place a cam or at last hide a mic somewhere. :)
13/10/2008 at 16:21 some guy says:
And…. booked.
13/10/2008 at 16:23 Ian says:
You guys need to start doing things in places that might be less convenient for you, but are more convenient for me.
13/10/2008 at 16:23 StalinsGhost says:
Ooo, think I might have to get in on this, I’m already at the Eurogamer Expo that day, so I think I’ll have to add this to my list of things to do. Just gotta make sure I plan when to take my train back to Reading :D
13/10/2008 at 16:25 Noc says:
I’ll second the calls for live webcastery; it occurred to me that there are plenty of people who would want to
drinkplay along at home.13/10/2008 at 16:28 Seniath says:
Ticket sorted, days booked off work. Now I just need to pester one of my cousins for a couch and get some form of train ticket.
13/10/2008 at 16:29 Ging says:
booked and I’ve organised it with work so I can get in late the next day (I have no desire to spend 7 hours at Newark waiting for the next train to Lincoln, so will instead be returning the day after).
13/10/2008 at 16:32 phuzz says:
I’m actually in london that day doing some M$ training, but typically I’ve already booked my train home at 7ish, so no chance of making this.
How about an event in bristol/bath? That would be easy to get to for you guys and for me :)
13/10/2008 at 16:33 StalinsGhost says:
Hmmm, it says it ends at 10, but I presume there’s going to be much mingling and drinkage post-questions?
13/10/2008 at 16:33 mrrobsa says:
Capital idea! And it doesn’t clash with anything else!
Truly a meeting sent by the gods (of PC gaming blogs).
13/10/2008 at 16:43 MonkeyMonster says:
A definite bonus to living here!
13/10/2008 at 16:49 crozon says:
damn it, i would if i could but i don’t live in london any more :(
13/10/2008 at 16:57 James Tao says:
I don’t suppose you’ll be inventing a teleporter to transport your faithful overseas readers? No? Shame on you for not circumventing physics, RPS.
13/10/2008 at 17:01 Butler` says:
If I can find someone to go to the London Games Festival with in the next few days I’ll definately be going to this!
Btw, it’s quite funny how they refer to PC gaming as “fringe”.
13/10/2008 at 17:10 Tarn says:
Doh! I’m attending the Eurogamer Expo on the following day, but won’t be able to attend this, alas. Shame, as I imagine it will be utterly marvellous.
Hopefully this will be the first of many such events? And, dare I say suggest maybe doing the next one at a weekend? :)
And yes – make sure someone has a video camera.
13/10/2008 at 17:15 MacBeth says:
Will be there – hopefully this time the SHOCKING LACK OF RPS T-SHIRTS as (not) seen at PC Gamer Showdown will mean that the Hive Mind members can be first recognized (for those who have not seen the photos) and then slavishly imitated
13/10/2008 at 17:15 Simon says:
oh god, is it worth commuting from Ireland to attend this?
13/10/2008 at 17:17 Pishtaco says:
I’m actually in London that week, but can’t make it, since Tuesday is Diwali.
13/10/2008 at 17:18 The Klugman Revolution says:
Booked. Hurrah!
13/10/2008 at 17:22 Kieron Gillen says:
Butler: It’s more that we’re fringe and our approach is fringe rather than the subject.
KG
13/10/2008 at 17:42 Dolphan says:
Booked. I’ve lived within an hours cheap train journey of London during term for two years and gone there precisely twice (for a protest and for play.com live). Passing this up when I’m only here for another 9 months would be silly.
13/10/2008 at 17:46 The Poisoned Sponge says:
Booked and ready. And hurrah for being able to go to Eurogamer earlier too.
13/10/2008 at 17:59 Pod says:
Is RPS reaaaaaaally the biggest PC gaming blog?
13/10/2008 at 18:00 Kieron Gillen says:
Someone told us we’re probably the biggest blog full stop in the UK recently. We’re not sure if we believe him. But it’s a fun thing to think for a second.
And biggest PC blog? Well, there may be individual games that are bigger, but can’t think of a PC only blog which is bigger…
KG
13/10/2008 at 18:10 arbitrary says:
Heh, I actually leave London that morning.
13/10/2008 at 18:31 Alex May says:
DRINKOSIUM, more like. Booked!
13/10/2008 at 18:34 lungfish says:
Could come, if anyone cares to donate a sofa?
13/10/2008 at 18:42 Butler` says:
KG i was more referring to an ad on the LGF site that says something like “It’s not all consoles, vist the Games Fringe”.
Unless I’m missing something :p
13/10/2008 at 18:44 Larington says:
This is really tempting, I’ve worked out that I can take a 4:55PM train from Cardiff, get there in 2 hours and take an 11:30 train back (which oddly takes 3 hours) though I would have to sleep at the parents house to do it… Hmmmm. Verrrry tempting.
13/10/2008 at 18:45 Aubrey says:
Yay! I get to heckle my lead!
13/10/2008 at 18:47 StalinsGhost says:
Similar to me Larington – my train in is half an hour… but the trains after 11 are an hour…
13/10/2008 at 18:48 Nny says:
I’ll join you guys for a drink, sure thing! :D
13/10/2008 at 19:01 dartt says:
Booked. Time to start preparing questions…
13/10/2008 at 19:01 Meat Circus says:
I have gone and booked my face off.
I’ll do the EG expo and then be straight there.
13/10/2008 at 19:03 Jay says:
Christ, even thought I’m in the middle of nowhere, I can go to my lectures, hop on the train, stay the full event, get back on the train and be back in time for lectures.
I may be coming
13/10/2008 at 19:15 Chris Evans says:
Hmm 10.45 train back to Cardiff or 11.30…gargh I don’t know =[
I’m sure that if I pretend to sleep then the ticket man won’t care if my ticket is for the wrong train :P
13/10/2008 at 19:18 McF says:
http://www.eurogamer.net/blog.php?platform=
is surely bigger, although RPS might get more readers than
http://www.eurogamer.net/blog.php?platform=pc
(“blog” is just a format, after all)
13/10/2008 at 19:22 Kieron Gillen says:
McF: Well done, but no.
I don’t really read too much into it. I just think it’s a funny idea that someone mentioned to us.
KG
13/10/2008 at 19:27 Frosty840 says:
Well, shit. I’m down to London on the Wednesday, but I can’t make the Tuesday.
Dagnabbit :/
13/10/2008 at 20:00 Draycen says:
Bookled.
Just need to catch a cold and take the day of sick now.
*cough* <—- hurrah!
13/10/2008 at 20:41 mandrill says:
Is one of you not doing EVE’s fanfest this year? This”l be a good warm up for it ;) Not that I’ll be able to make Your London gig, did you think of streaming it?
13/10/2008 at 20:49 Jim Rossignol says:
I can’t make the fanfest this year, but what we’re doing instead should make up for it.
13/10/2008 at 21:13 firefeenix says:
God damn this sounds like marvelous game related socialising. And now i even live in wonderful Bristol, only a number of hours away from terrific Londinium Town instead if the deepest darkest jungles of Cornwall where traveling such distance takes many months by donkey and a goat herder called Jim. Why does it have to be in the middle of the week???
Anyone want to put me up Tuesday night so i can catch the first train back to Bristol Wednesday morning?
13/10/2008 at 22:22 Bhazor says:
I’m very tempted except it would mean braving Kings Cross after midnight as well as Brighton station.
But if you can get Peter Molyneux in that drinking game I’m in. His galloping crazies would be enough to guarantee a good night.
13/10/2008 at 22:32 qrter says:
Great idea about the drinking game. That just makes it sufficiently stupid to become a lot of fun.
Alas, I do not preside in the UK – so do please make a recording of the event, be it visual, aural or both. :)
13/10/2008 at 22:42 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
I can’t meet these demands!
The airfare’s a bit much, especially in this economy.
13/10/2008 at 22:45 uncleb says:
Would go, but Tuesday? With drinking afterwards? It’d be at least 4 before I hit bed then working Wed, so no chance.
13/10/2008 at 22:50 Mike Arthur says:
Gone already? Boo :(
13/10/2008 at 23:00 Pijama says:
WE OF FOREIGN GEOGRAPHICS DEMAND THAT YOU PLACE A CAMERA FOR THIS MOST FORTUITOUS EVENT.
13/10/2008 at 23:13 Eli Just says:
What Pijama said. If only I wasn’t in the US I would so be there.
13/10/2008 at 23:16 Matt says:
Sold out already? :(
13/10/2008 at 23:31 Mister Yuck says:
I think you should all fly out to Chicago to do this instead. That makes sense.
I’ll let you camp out in my basement?
13/10/2008 at 23:33 Will Tomas says:
Please please please can someone take a DV camera and a tripod? For those of us who can’t make it it would be a great thing to be able to watch. Failing that, Kieron’s dictaphone from the RPS audio broadcasts…
13/10/2008 at 23:43 Tims says:
Argh!! booked out already?!! noooooo!
13/10/2008 at 23:55 Down Rodeo says:
Dammit 700 miles awayness!
That’s a bit of a gutter. Have a good night though guys.
I second-third- actually God know what number it’s on now, umm, that you should be recording this.
13/10/2008 at 23:57 Tims says:
any chance of moving to a bigger venue? or should we stand out the front and try to buy peoples identities?
14/10/2008 at 00:02 AsubstanceD says:
We need more tickets! I want to go! tickets were pirated im guessing and so they aren’t supporting pc gamers anymore.
14/10/2008 at 00:08 andrewdoull says:
Um… booked out already?
Which is a shame, as I am actually in London (over from Sydney) at the time and I would have loved to have gone. Anyone have a spare ticket they’re willing to lend me
14/10/2008 at 00:28 whoaaaa says:
What drinks are free?
14/10/2008 at 01:22 Rei Onryou says:
Sold out? Say it ain’t so! Please tell me that I can just turn up and enjoy the awesomeness. There’ll be drinks in it for the four of you (you do take bribes, don’t you?)!
14/10/2008 at 01:54 wiper says:
Bollocks, the one day I step away from the internet to do *important real-world things* (like finish my dissertation in time for Wednesday), this happens. Pants.
14/10/2008 at 02:00 Dean says:
Problem with free stuff is if you wait long enough to find out if you can actually make it for real it ‘sells out’ to people that don’t…
14/10/2008 at 06:57 Raff says:
Drat. Booked up. Am going to the EG on that day and this would have been a perfect addition.
Move to Millennium dome please.
14/10/2008 at 07:17 Aftershock says:
Sigh.
I’ll just file this one as another part of the “having the nicest beaches tax”.
Stupid geographic isolation.
14/10/2008 at 08:07 Mort says:
maaan booked up!
(snooze.lose)
14/10/2008 at 08:47 phuzz says:
Biggest brit blog? Well, erm, I can’t think of any bigger ones, wait a mo, what about Warren Ellis? He must have loads of readers, or what about some british musician? But apart from that, all hail our tea drinking RPS overlords!
14/10/2008 at 09:03 Feet says:
Bah. I dilly-dallied on whether to come and now it is too late. And I’m only up the road from London too, could have got there in an hour.
14/10/2008 at 10:15 Seb Potter says:
Damn, wish I’d seen this yesterday. The Alphabet Bar is just around the corner from my office, and a regular haunt.
14/10/2008 at 10:30 Bobsy says:
Ah well. I couldn’t have made it anyway. Important work event happens the following day. Attendees! Try your best not to get into a drunken rage and impale Introversion employees with barstool legs!
14/10/2008 at 11:42 Crispy says:
Got the ticket, now I just hope I get the time of work (yes, I’m a late worker).
For anyone who for some reason doesn’t have a ticket, I’ll be sure to let RPS know they have a spare one going if I can’t come, but all signs at the moment are pointing to games plus boozing, schmoozing and more boozing! \o/
14/10/2008 at 11:55 AsubstanceD says:
Im still waiting for you wonderful guys to announce more tickets or a bigger venue… Ill add it to my wishlist along with fallout 4 rpg edition. Shotguns on any spares by the way!
14/10/2008 at 12:01 Crispy says:
Okay, AsubstanceD, for using the magic word (and being first to ask) you have dibs on my ticket if it goes begging.
14/10/2008 at 12:11 Kieron Gillen says:
I’ve just opened some more tickets, gentlemen. GO!
Just as a “in passing thing”, we opened up the tickets to RPS subscribers for a few days before we opened it up to the general readership. If we do something similar in future, that’s how we’ll be running it as well. Which is only fair, really.
KG
14/10/2008 at 12:39 Crispy says:
Define ‘subscriber’.
RSS bottom-feeder? Gravatar owner? Regular poster? Forum member? This word needs clarity, sir!
14/10/2008 at 12:42 Kieron Gillen says:
Subscriber.
KG
14/10/2008 at 12:46 AsubstanceD says:
Cheers RPS! I will be london bound, appreciate the gesture though crispy but I get to see you there now!
14/10/2008 at 13:13 kororas says:
‘we opened up the tickets to RPS subscribers for a few days before’
/looks around
Where? :-(
14/10/2008 at 13:16 Kieron Gillen says:
We mailed everyone who subscribed on Saturday, to their paypal address.
(Actually, one mail bounced and continued to bounce. God knows how he pays us every month via that account.)
KG
14/10/2008 at 13:18 kororas says:
That was probably me then :-(
/bounce
/bounce
/bounce
…
doh
14/10/2008 at 13:44 Kieron Gillen says:
Kororas: Drop me a mail with the name of your paypal account and I’ll change it on the list.
KG
14/10/2008 at 13:48 Crispy says:
Oh, the “We the undersigned” type of subscriber.
When I stop earning a fraction of a mere fraction of diddly-squat (tester pay), I may consider it. Or sooner if I’m feeling foolhardy (the Scottish word for ‘generous’; I am not Scottish).
14/10/2008 at 14:23 roBurky says:
I think you should announce the subscriber perks more prominently in the future. As has just been demonstrated, not enough people even know about it. Plus it’s no longer begging for money if you’re giving people stuff for it.
14/10/2008 at 15:19 Rei Onryou says:
Fantastic! Got meself a golden ticket!
14/10/2008 at 16:24 Matt says:
Sold out again :( I need to up the hits on your site more frequently
14/10/2008 at 17:10 The_B says:
I have tickets, I’m just a little worried about accomodation, as I doubt I can get back to Lincoln the same night…
14/10/2008 at 23:20 Ergates says:
Just to be boring:
If you created a Paypal account with your current email address, then [for instance] changed ISP, your Paypal account woud still function even though the email address was no longer valid.
14/10/2008 at 23:22 Ergates says:
And this prompted me to subscribe (I meant to earlier, but forgot) so hurrah for that. (even though I can’t go down to London on a Tuesday – what with having a job and all…)
15/10/2008 at 00:04 Crispy says:
Ergates, that’s what holidays are for.
Also:
“I’ve lived within an hours cheap train journey of London during term for two years and gone there precisely twice (for a protest and for play.com live).”
404 – Church not found.
15/10/2008 at 14:02 Owen says:
Never even knew you could subscribe actually, but will do so shortly.
15/10/2008 at 15:01 Morgo_the_Monkeygod says:
PC games ‘n booze…made in heaven. Anybody tried drunk driving in racing sims?
16/10/2008 at 14:04 Paul says:
Damn, missed out – any more tickets going up for this?
16/10/2008 at 14:37 Ging says:
The_B: I can guarantee that you can’t get back to Lincoln the same night – past about 11:30, you’re looking at a 6 hour wait at Newark… I suppose you could walk from Castle to North Gate really, really slowly?
I felt bad about ad blocking the site for a while, so figured throwing a single pound (roughly) a month towards the hive minds tea fund would make up for it.
19/10/2008 at 15:19 Larington says:
Wow, this sold out fast, how well, maybe next time.